Social media's impact on the empowerment of women and youth male entrepreneurs in Egypt

Abstract

PurposeThis study aims to examine the impact of social media (SM) on the creation of digital entrepreneurship by female (irrespective of age) and youth male (aged 18–29 years) entrepreneurs, investigate if SM empowers those entrepreneurs and compare the empowerment characteristics between female and youth male entrepreneurs before and after starting their businesses.Design/methodology/approachSelf-assessment questionnaires were collected from a sample of 408 Egyptian female and youth male digital entrepreneurs from Greater Cairo, whose businesses had been operating for more than one year.FindingsThe research showed the following four results: Of the surveyed entrepreneurs, 95% asserted that without SM, they would not have started their businesses. Female and youth male entrepreneurs are empowered both on personal and relational levels, and women’s empowerment is more evident in the latter. Before digital entrepreneurship, youth males have significantly higher averages than female entrepreneurs in almost all empowerment characteristics, whereas after digital entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurs have significantly higher averages in making decisions related to investment, personal education and personal health, as well as those of other household members. Female entrepreneurs are relatively more empowered than youth males after digital entrepreneurship when each group is compared with its initial status.Originality/valueThis study’s originality stems from using a large sample of entrepreneurs, including youth males, not just females; employing a more structured, comprehensive measure of empowerment than found in the literature because it included the rarely used psychological dimension; considering more than one SM tool and comparing empowerment of females to that of youth males.

The impact of entrepreneurs' perceptions and social media usage on their intention to formalise their MSMEs in Egypt

“…The latter is particularly interesting given the skyrocketing usage of SM in Egypt in the past few years (Kemp, 2022). Recent studies have examined the impact of SM use on MSMEs performance (Fakhreldin et al, 2020(Fakhreldin et al, , 2023, on the formation of informal online businesses/digital entrepreneurship (Miniesy et al, 2022) and on women and young male entrepreneurs' empowerment (Beninger et al, 2016;Miniesy et al, 2021), however, no studies have examined its impact on formalisation, which highlights a research gap that this study intends to fill.…”

“…But after the start and the operation of the online business this might change. Miniesy et al (2021) showed that informal digital entrepreneurship empowers females and young males in terms of increasing their self-esteem, self-confidence, self-efficacy, autonomy and confidence in their business abilities. In theory, these empowerment traits could boost the entrepreneur's perception of their ability to perform the action (formalise) and could thus encourage formalisation.…”

“…These should then be followed by policies that target MSMEs expansion and development to help stimulate their formalisation intention. The first set of policies could include constructing the relevant digital infrastructure, such as high-speed broadband all over Egypt; promoting basic digital literacy by offering free online educational material and training programmes to teach potential entrepreneurs how to use SM successfully in creating, operating and maintaining an online business and using the media to highlight success stories (Miniesy et al, 2021). The second set of policies could include governmental and other financial support services and programmes that specifically target relatively successful informal online businesses, such as loans provision with low interest rates or free MSME-specific expert advice.…”

The Role of Digital Platforms in Women’s Entrepreneurial Opportunity Process: Does Online Social Capital Matter?

“…This new business environment attracts female entrepreneurs in the Middle East to create various online communities to empower their counterparts and capitalize on the fast, low-cost, and fluid nature of social media platforms. All these aspects facilitate facing many challenges of starting a business [7]. Although women nearly constitute half of the population in Egypt, they are ill-represented in the labor force by only 18.7% in 2020 [8].…”

“…For female entrepreneurs in emerging economies, the importance of SM platforms increases as weak ties are created by these platforms to support women in these communities to overcome the pressure of their families' responsibilities and perceived gender roles [7,16]. Prior studies have examined the relationship between social capital and opportunity recognition in the face-to-face context [24][25][26][27].…”